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Liberalism According to Štefan Launer Or on an Ethno-Eman- Cipation Theory

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Liberalism According to Štefan Launer Or on an Ethno-Eman- Cipation Theory Liberalism According to Štefan Launer or on an Ethno-Eman- cipation Theory Marcela Gbúrová1 Department of Political Science, UPJŠ Faculty of Arts, Slovak Republic Liberalism According to Štefan Launer, or on an Ethno-Emancipation Theory. (This paper has been prepared under the VEGA project No. 1/1116/12). Liberally-oriented Štefan Launer intervened in the complicated Slovak national- identification process of the 1840s, who defined himself in relation to the Štúr´s group by his radical rejection of their language reform. He considered that reform a gross distortion of the State (Historic-Hungarian) and national (Czechoslovak) integration. Launer made use of the difficult situation of looking for the most suitable solution of language issues of Slovaks in Historic Hungary to expose his own expertise, his intellectual gifts, and his conflicting nature. He developed his own ethno-emancipation theory, through which he not only wanted to attract the representatives of the Lutheran Church in Historic Hungary, but mainly the historic Hungarian political suzerain. The essence of his concept was that he defined the streamlining of cultural and political modernity in Europe from its western part to its eastern part, while having ”entrusted” the global history-forming initiative to four of the Western European nations (the Italian, the French, the English, and the German ones), which by virtue of their scholarship and spirit were to revive the Slavic world. Through the above concept, he intended to contribute to resolving the ethno-cultural processes ongoing within the context of modernizing multilingual Historic Hungary. Key words: liberalism, ethno-emancipation theory, Štefan Launer, Slavs (Slavonery), Kossuthan platform of a single Historic-Hungarian nation and the single Historic-Hungarian language. Liberalizmus v podaní Štefana Launera, alebo o jednej etnicko-emancipačnej teórii. (Táto štúdia je výsledkom riešenia projektu VEGA č. 1/1116/12). Do komplikovaného slovenského národno-identifikačného procesu zasiahol v 40. rokoch 19. storočia aj liberálne orientovaný Štefan Launer, ktorý sa vymedzil vo vzťahu k štúrovcom radikálnym odmietnutím ich jazykovej reformy. Uvedenú reformu považoval za hrubé narušenie štátnej (uhorskej) a národnej (československej) integrácie. Launer využil komplikovanú situáciu hľadania najvhodnejšieho riešenia jazykovej otázky Slovákov v Uhorsku na to, aby zviditeľnil svoju učenosť, svoje intelektuálne danosti i svoju konfliktnú povahu. Vypracoval vlastnú etnicko-emancipačnú teóriu, ktorou chcel zaujať nielen predstaviteľov evanjelickej cirkvi v Uhorsku, ale najmä uhorskú politickú vrchnosť. Podstata jeho koncepcie spočívala v tom, že nastavil smerovanie kultúrno- politickej modernity v Európe Launer od jej západnej časti na jej východnú časť, pričom svetodejinnú iniciatívu „zveril“ štyrom západoeurópskym národom (Talianom, Francúzom, Angličanom, Nemcom), ktoré svojou vzdelanosťou 1 Address: Prof. PhDr. Marcela Gbúrová, CSc., Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts UPJŠ in Košice, Petzvalova 4, 040 01 Košice, Slovak Republic. E-mail: [email protected] Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, Volume 14, 2014, No. 2 121 DOI: 10.2478/sjps-2014-0006 a duchom majú obrodiť slovanský svet. Touto koncepciou chcel prispieť k riešeniu etnicko-kultúrneho procesu prebiehajúceho v rámci modernizácie mnohorečového Uhorska. Kľúčové slová: liberalizmus, etnicko-emancipačná teória, Štefan Launer, slovanstvo, kossuthovskej platforme jednotného uhorského národa a jednotnej uhorskej reči As early as during his study at Lyceums (in Banská Štiavnica and Bratislava) and university studies (Halle), Štefan Launer (1821 – 1851), a native of Krupina, revealed a lot not only as to his philosophical model figures (Hegel, Luther), but also his nature, which predestined him for the role of a future uncompromising opponent of the ethno-political agenda of the Štúran nation- forming elite of the 1840s. Several testimonies of his schoolmates show2 that the young student Launer had something of a Napoleonic complex: short stature, vigorous, hardy, boastful, ambitious, obstinate, argumentative, bossy, choleric, ”eternal dissenter“, intrinsically structured for playing the role of leader of a minority radical opinion stream. In the year 1842, when two rival wings were created among the students at the Lyceum of Bratislava, the majority Slovak one and the minority anti-Štúran one, Launer gave pass to his leadership trait and programmatically sided with the opposition against Štúr3. While in Halle, he went into quarrels with almost all the Slovak students there; he only tolerated those who were of undecided opinion, mentally immature, in whom he felt that they needed strong leadership superimposed by a protective hand. In that German environment, he managed to establish alliance with Andrej Lanšťják (1821 – 1908), who took sides in his great anti-Štúran mission at the end of the 1840s. The study in Halle meant for Launer an opportunity to deepen his understanding of Hegel's philosophy of modern Idealism, which enjoyed considerable attention among Slavic students. From Kalinčiak´s memories of Sládkovič4 we learn that Launer in Halle intensively studied ”Hegelianism” and was prepared to professionally discuss this issue only with those who underwent an in-depth study of Hegel's dialectics. After returning from Halle in the autumn of 1847, he became professor at his former school – the Lyceum in Banská Štiavnica. In that very year he launched 2 See e.g. Rozpomienky na Ondreja Sládkoviča od Janka Kalinčiaka (Sokol I, 1862, pp. 442-445), Grossmann, Ľ.: Nákres života Andreja Braxatoris-Sládkoviča (Orol V, 1874). 3 Cf. Kleinschnitzová, F.: Sládkovič a jeho doba. Praha 1928, p. 74. 4 “Launer had a quarrel with me within a few days of his arrival saying how dare I (Sládkovič, M.G.) argue with him about Hegelianism when I have not even for a week been breathing in Halle, but that he has been dealing with it for the whole year “. Quoted under Klenschnitzová, F.: Ibid., p. 291. Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, Volume 14, 2014, No. 2 122 the implementation of his ideas on the ethno-emancipation modernism in Central Europe, particularly in Historic Hungary and the Slavic world. Launer had systematically been developing the ideas described while still having been staying in the German environment. He arrived in Slovakia with a comprehensive concept which he implemented in three stages. In the first stage, he constructed the philosophical foundations of his vision of the ethno- emancipation modernism, in the second stage he created on those foundations his own variant of the ethno- emancipation theory, and in the third stage he attempted to try out the implementation possibilities for his theory. The accurate understanding of that Launer´s ethno-emancipation initiative of the 1840s may be found in his works published between the years 1847 and 1949: Slovo k národu svému (A Word to My Nation, Banská Štiavnica, 1947), Povaha Slovanstva (The Nature of Slavonry, Leipzig, 1847), Všelicos pro obveselení mysli (All Sorts of Things to Amuse the Mind, Banská Štiavnica, 1848), A Štúr féle tótság veszedelmes iránya (Buda, 1848), Našim milým Slovákům (To Our Beloved Slovaks, Banská Štiavnica, 1848), Vysvětlení proč náš král svržen jest z trůnu? (An Explanation of Why Our King Has Been Dethroned?, Banská Bystrica, 1849). Stage I We have already suggested that Štefan Launer was systematically engaged in the study of Hegel's philosophy while staying in the Halle university environment. Based on Launer's most famous work, Povaha Slovanstva (the Nature of Slavonry), one may conclude that the range of his philosophical sources of inspiration was wider. He explicitly referred to the line of philosophical views (Socrates, Aristotle, Schiller), which presented a detailed insight into spirituality outside of a cognitively recognizable world, thus the absolute spirit which is synonymous with God. In this sense, the finding of J. Marták is surprising, who in an effort to prove non-authenticity and speculative character of Launer's philosophical position concerning the issue of spirit and spirituality, attributes to him other inspirational resources (theological writings of Schelling, Schleirmacher, Marheineck, Bretscheider, and other theological philosophers, as well as the philosophical thought of Fichte and Schelling and a group of Hegel's successors, who denied that the spirit [God] is to be found outside the world cognitively recognizable by humans, thus being merely a product of man's imagination)5 that substantially left him unaffected in his theistic conception of perceiving the world. These had significance only in the 5 Cf. for details Marták, J.: Útok na spisovnú slovenčinu roku 1847/48 a jeho cieľ. Matica slovenská: Martin 1938, p. 107. Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, Volume 14, 2014, No. 2 123 sense that he began to think more freely in respect of certain religious dogmas, in a more liberal way, i.e. in a more open-minded way. In the issue of spirituality, his position was clearly theistic6, which was consistent with Štúr's opinion. They also agreed on the opinion on the essence of religion as ”revealed” religion. In this sense, Š. Launer programmatically did not want to deviate from Štúr in his views on the Christian doctrine, realizing the importance of this teaching for the spiritual and moral development of the Slovak ethnicity. In emphasizing the ”global historical” role of Christianity as the ”God of mankind”, he went as far in his attitude
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